(this caption is for the four Juxtaposition of Tree and Rock photos) What is it that distinguishes Earth from Mars? When we visit the dry landscapes of the Alabama Hills in the Eastern Sierra, or the vast deserts of the American Southwest, we invariably compare these inhospitable landscapes to the arid vistas on Mars traversed by our rovers. No... Unlike Mars, even the most arid desert on Earth is teeming with life. In every corner of every desert landscape in the Western U.S., shrubs improbably wage a war of survival, and trees rise in defiance to the harsh environment. Viewed from afar, Monument Valley is a collection of buttes sandblasted by millennia of wind... Within the valley itself, verdant nature asserts itself, in stark contrast to the radiant crags of the vermilial Southwest. Photographed August 2021.
